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User blog:TheMegabug/Effort Post for the Megabug (for TV Tropes)
On September 12th the Complete Monster (Pure Evil) cleanup will be discussing Mario + Rabbids and I have the honor of writing the effort post. Here's a late draft. What's the Work? Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. A crossover between Mario and Rabbids, the latter ends up causing some shenanigans, fusing their world with the Mario universe. Mario, with some friendly Rabbids, sets out to stop the hostile Rabbids from wreaking havoc forever. But there's a more sinister threat at play here... What is the Megabug and what does it do? First appearing when the Mario and Rabbid worlds are fused, labelled a virus by the ExpositionFairy (but it has moral agency), it quickly proves itself to be more of a threat than “giant mute ominous void”. It’s revealed very early on that the reasons these evil Rabbids are so agressive is because the Megabug was controlling them, brainwashing if you will. However, every time you defeat one of these and un-corrupt them, the Megabug grows its power as it no longer has to use it on that Rabbid. So basically, no matter how you progress, the Megabug will always grow. The actual void itself is very much like the one from ‘’Super Paper Mario’’ if it had moral agency and a conscience. When it grows big enough after you’ve defeated enough Rabbids, it threatens to, in what would be a cataclysmic event for both worlds, engulf and destroy both of them, the Mario and Rabbid worlds. Unlike next to everything else in the game it’s played dead seriously and is considered the number one threat. It takes a more active role in the final world of the game, the Lava Pits. Bowser had just returned from his vacation, and the Megabug, having gained tons of power at this point and taking the form of a fiery phoenix, beats him to unconsciousness. (you can hear his screams and they are not pretty.) It possesses him, as well as absorbing Spawny, the Rabbid who had been fusing objects with Rabbids in the game in the first place (but this Rabbid is hardly evil). This turns it even stronger, and it fights you in Bowser’s body as the final boss. One thing of note is that in this fight, it can attack its own minions. For some reason. This was intentional and is a nice little GameplayAndStoryIntegration bit, managing to showcase its monstrousness even ingame. Eventually you defeat it in battle, but, in fear of its own death, it makes one last ditch attempt to wipe out your entire party before you blow it up once and for all, freeing Bowser, Spawny and both worlds. Heinous Standard? I did think about this, and ultimately it passes. Dimentio is a different canon, and its plan is I think worse than King Boo’s, as it attempting to destroy and engulf two separate universes. If you go by the Rabbids heinous standard… well… there isn’t one. Compared to the other villains of the game... well it's responsible for all of them. And Bowser Jr. is inadvertadly helping feed it by fusing more Rabbids with objcest for Mario to defeat which, before the fusion even, also suffer the HatePlague... basically everything is filling in to its own plan. Even Dimentio didn't kill his own minions. Moral Agency. This is what I had to have a long, long think about as people brought it up in DMs a lot. I think it passes it. It’s clearly not a mindless being, even though it’s fully mute, as it set up the entire events of the game in a Chessmaster-like fashion. Remember you can’t actually defeat a Rabbid without it growing, and with them under its control, it would wreak havoc otherwise. It engineered a lose-lose situation. It shows emotions such as fear when you finally kill it, and if I had to compare it to anything in terms of Agency, it’d be Mephiles, who counts. (i know comparisons aren’t liked very much here but there’s nothing wrong with them.) Mephiles and the Megabug are both technically evil beings that can still choose what they want to do. And the Megabug chose to attempt omnicide on two universes. And honestly in the first place? There’s nothing saying it doesn’t have agency. The game never mentions it or makes note of it at all, and I believe it’s a rule here to take moral agency unless stated otherwise. And it is ‘’not’’ stated otherwise. GDV? My second most contested point. Again, despite being mute, it showcases plenty of personality through expressions and acts (like the not so long ago proposed Gorea) and is firmly out of the realm of a GDV. It’s not all “hah haha EVIL”, it planned the entire events of the game ''out and beat Bowser to near death. It's a Chessmaster. Instead of a GDV, thanks to its chessmastering, I'd label it a FlatCharacter. Now, I got some responses about it not having a coherent motivation. However, I think its motivation is to grow more powerful, though, as doing that would help it grow bigger and take its phyiscal form, which it does. If making you inadvertaly grow it bigger is part of its plan, I think it's implicit that it's aiming for power as one of its motives. '''Freudian Excuse?' Not a single diddly one. Verdict? Personally I’m happy saying yes to it, but as always I’ll have to let the thread decide. I think I’ve covered all bases here, and ultimately the only issue, moral agency, is not a worry here. Category:Blog posts